Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

T R E 4 5 O N

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

When we show up, we win.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

No one could have predicted…

Republicans in disarray!

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

People are weird.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / So, Did I Miss Anything

So, Did I Miss Anything

by | 234 Comments

This post is in: ,

I was basically offline all day doing things and out of town, so let’s recap the day:

1.) Mexico and the Fucking Wall

* Trump rolled out a 20% tariff proposal on Mexican goods to pay for the wall.

* The Mexican President told Trump to go fuck himself and cancelled a scheduled meeting.

* Trump White House is walking back the 20% tariff.

* As Anne Laurie noted, Texans are telling Trump to fuck off.

* Former Mexican President Vicente Fox continues to have all the fun in the world fucking with Cheeto Jeebus:

***

2.) Cybersecurity

* As Adam noted, Trump is controlling his online presence through an easily guessed gmail account.

* Sean Spicer is still a moron, and has two days in a row tweeted his password:

* This speaks for itself:

***

3.) General Governance:

* Basically the entire upper management of the State Department quit, choosing to retire or have other foreign service appointments rather that work the Tangelo Tyrant.

* Trump bullied the National Park Service director and called him personally to back up his claims about the size of his inauguration crowds.

* Trump and his minions have pulled all advertising about ACA signups, pulling even ads that have ALREADY been paid for and placed.

* The US has suspended all interviews with potential refugees, fucking people who may have been in the process for years.

***

That’s the big stuff- THAT WE KNOW ABOUT. Oh, yeah. The Doomsday Clock advanced but that’s almost an afterthought at this point. What is this- Day Six? A couple more weeks and I will be begging for the sweet radioactive release of nuclear armageddon.

Reader Interactions

234Comments

  2. 2.

    Exurban Mom

    Very interesting conversation I had at work today. I live in a very red county in Ohio. Big Republican volunteer comes in, long-time party member in county, spouse was elected official at one time. She was complaining that “all we hear about in the news is Trump…What about the rest of the world?” I think the constant negative press is getting under their skin. Bigly. We need to keep at it. This is the first indication I’ve seen of a big supporter getting uncomfortable. It gave me some hope. They will never admit they were wrong; they are hoping and praying that eventually we will be distracted or move off the topic. We have to keep the pressure on. It will work, I think.

  3. 3.

    Mike J

    The State people quitting was Trump accepting the resignations that are always turned in at the start of a new admin. Closer to firing than quitting.

    Sen Cantwell tweeted that she’s voting against DeVos.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    He flew to Philadelphia, where neither the Governor nor the Mayor greeted him at the airport. Reportedly, nobody did. Either his people are too incompetent to say he was coming, or the two officials said “fuck that noise.”

  5. 5.

    Exurban Mom

    Yeah, we could use some emergency Steve or Lily pictures about now. Or cool house pictures.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    Is that tweet from Vicente Fox for real? With our favorite word (fucking) in a hashtag. Wow.

    Also, disgusting about pulling the ACA advertising. That is so low. Although so is everything else. What a dick. Is in the Oval Office. WTG, Red States.

  9. 9.

    Warren Terra

    I think I’ve figured this whole “Wall On The Mexican Border” thing out, and can offer a compromise.

    Among the problems with the wall: it’s not necessary, it wouldn’t fulfill its declared purpose, it will destroy and divide a lot of wildlife habitat, and it’s ruinously expensive.

    My solution would resolve or at least mitigate all of these, and it’s based on my remembering a simple misconception, which is this:

    The Great Wall Of China is widely believed to be visible from space by the naked eye.

    It’s not. I’m sorry, it just isn’t. And this is a problem: given that the Mexico Border Wall would be so expensive, destructive, and useless, it’s inconceivable that anyone would be building it to reduce workforce participation by undocumented immigrants, a task it’s singularly unsuited to perform. But: what if they’re instead building it as a legacy project, in the mistaken belief that it will be visible from space for two thousand years, like the Great Wall Of China is widely if mistakenly believed to be?

    One solution would be obvious: Pyramids. The Pyramids of Giza, unlike the Great Wall, are visible from space (well, the shadows they cast are). This option would at least make Ben Carson either very happy or very unhappy – I’m not sure which, and can use the argument either way. But, remembering who Trump is, I think there’s a more honest and more appealing alternative:

    We will build a giant cock and balls on part of the Mexico border.

    It will do just about as much to diminish illegal immigration and undocumented labor. It will be less of a disruption to wildlife habitat. It will be cheaper, and may even be a source of tourist revenue. Most importantly, it will be visible from space.

    I still don’t think we’ll be able to get Mexico to pay for it.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    Trump has tweeted that Miami has abandoned being a sanctuary city. The comments are very rewarding.

  12. 12.

    Elizabelle

    You cannot make this stuff up. A year ago, we would have thought this was the stupidest soap opera/reality show ever. Just not possible.

  14. 14.

    Aleta

    You might have missed the interview that Steve Bannon graciously gave to the NYT:

    “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while,” Mr. Bannon said during a telephone call.

    “You’re the opposition party,” Mr. Bannon said. “Not the Democratic Party. You’re the opposition party. The media’s the opposition party.”

    Mr. Bannon mostly referred to the “elite” or “mainstream” media, but he cited The New York Times and The Washington Post by name.

    “The paper of record for our beloved republic, The New York Times, should be absolutely ashamed and humiliated,” Mr. Bannon said. “They got it 100 percent wrong.”

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Aleta:

    The paper of record for our beloved republic, The New York Times, should be absolutely ashamed and humiliated,” Mr. Bannon said. “They got it 100 percent wrong.”

    A real example of right but for the wrong reasons.

  21. 21.

    Elizabelle

    @Aleta:

    “The paper of record for our beloved republic, The New York Times, should be absolutely ashamed and humiliated,” Mr. Bannon said. “They got it 100 percent wrong.”

    Jeebus. And now you’ve got a lot of us agreeing with Steve Bannon. Thanks, Aleta!

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    I don’t want to see the Fuck the Fucking New York Times wrapping themselves in a martyr’s cape.

    They still deserve their tar and feathers.

    Emails, fuckers. Don’t try to distract us by reminding us that other people detest you too. For various and sundry reasons.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @Warren Terra

    The solution, of course, is to erect yooge (the bestest ever) billboards with the lunatic-in-chief’s face.

    Anyone approaching would run from the border, screaming.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    PS Mrs. Jeffro just saw the Vincente Fox Quesada tweet and is ready to move south. I had to break it to her that he’s the former president, but still…

  28. 28.

    debit

    “The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its dirty whore mouth shut and just listen for a while,” Mr. Bannon said during a telephone call.

    Fixed it.

  29. 29.

    TS

    @Mike J:

    The State people quitting was Trump accepting the resignations that are always turned in at the start of a new admin. Closer to firing than quitting.

    Agree they were fired – but these were career staffers not political appointments

    The four officials, who have served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, are charged with managing the agency and overseeing its staff diplomatic posts abroad.

    Entire State Department Management Team Fired By Trump Admin

  30. 30.

    MazeDancer

    @Exurban Mom:

    This is the first indication I’ve seen of a big supporter getting uncomfortable. It gave me some hope.

    That is a hopeful story. And helps explain why Spicer went furious on press about why are you so negative. And why Bannon uncloaked today to tell media to stop being media. Truth hurts. Good.

  32. 32.

    Roger Moore

    @TS:

    Agree they were fired – but these were career staffers not political appointments

    They were both. They were career staffers who were given jobs that require a presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. So they could be fired from their positions but not from government service. It sounds as if they’ve all chosen to leave the government rather than stay in the State Department under Trump.

  34. 34.

    schrodingers_cat

    Today is India’s Republic Day. India gave itself a constitution on Jan26th 1950. The framer of the Indian Constitution was the Dalit economist and lawyer Dr. Ambedkar, has an American connection too. He got one of his two PhDs in Columbia. Harlem influenced him and his work a lot.

  37. 37.

    PhoenixRising

    Hair Furor was a jerk about taking a ride to Philly at taxpayer expense, screamed at by record crowds fueled by cheesesteaks, lied about what a smart guy Paul Ryan is & fled for DC as soon as his man could bring the car around.

    IOW, how Trump’s life is expected to work until he figures out that Presidenting is hard and quits.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    I hope the Trump admin universally lifts all sanctions against Russia. That would be the balls.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @PhoenixRising: The only bad thing about your very entertaining comment is that you know that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are laughing about that situation even more than we are.

  44. 44.

    elm

    Talk up the cost of the new TrumpTax on imported goods, talk to friends, family, and your representatives. Complain about it on facebook and in letters to the editor of your local paper. He just proposed a new tax for all of us to pay.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @PhoenixRising

    He may have been told about it but my understanding is that the passengers in the presidential limo cannot see anything outside through the windows.

  47. 47.

    Corner Stone

    I made the mistake earlier today of reading the Trump-ABC interview that was part of an earlier thread. My brain is still broke. I find myself communicating in verses from songs on movie soundtracks from the last 30 years. I don’t think I can verbalize a complete thought or sentence in coherent English just yet.

  48. 48.

    amk

    putin: comrades, we did it and we did it on the cheap. heck, even bin laden had to shell out for those air tickets.

  50. 50.

    Mike in NC

    On the bright side, we still have Friday’s Trumpian chaos and confusion to look forward to. Pass the vodka.

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mike J: I thought the State folks were permanent employees and not political appointees. They quit. Only political appointees leave once the President who appointed them is out of office.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    I’m trying to figure what the extent of the panic will be when our guacamole ends up costing more than caviar thanks to Trump’s border tax.

  61. 61.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Elizabelle: I want to gay marry Vincente Fox. He trolls Putin’s Circus Peanut so well. Earlier this week or late last he tweeted at Spicer:

    I already told @Real PCP, I’m not paying for that #fucking wall.

    He had tweeted that a couple of times to PCP. You know it must annoy the snot out of him.

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    @Corner Stone: At the beginning of the ABC video I saw this morning, they were standing in the Oval Office and Trump said “They offer you a selection of 7 or 8 rugs,” like this is the GREATEST hotel ever.

  64. 64.

    Oldgold

    For a generation we should not have to hear from any sane person that there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican parties.

  65. 65.

    PhoenixRising

    In other reassuring news, the documents definitely released by our only executive branch referring to a meeting Cheeto Benito has booked with Britian’s leader tomorrow…misspelt (okay, misspelled, be that way) her name.

    While it’s possible to spell Theresa without an H–and therefore no spell-check was triggered by the error–I find it disquieting that even when it comes to detail work that doesn’t matter that much, Trump is surrounded with people so incurious that no one looked at a story in the BBC to learn Thing 1 (how to spell the person’s name).

    No doubt the meeting will come off without a(nother) hitch.

  67. 67.

    Ian G.

    Bannon must be feeling the heat for him to have a meltdown like this, which makes me wonder just how bad Bannon’s fuhrer is doing at this point. I wonder when Drumpf orders Bannon to arm the war elephants with Greek fire in order to punish the traitors at “Us Weekly”.

  68. 68.

    debit

    @Elizabelle: Walter is currently licking my bare foot in what can only be described as an obsessive fashion. I don’t judge.

    He’s the same as the last update. Still eating good and wagging his tail every time someone looks at him. We’re taking it day by day. And when I just reached down to scritch him for you, he wagged his tail and started on my leg.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    @debit: Sweet puppy. He is not giving up. Hope he’s here for a long comfy time. I like that he wags at everyone.

    We could all be more like Walter.

  73. 73.

    bluehill

    Listened to a piece on NPR about the efforts of South Korea to counteract NK propaganda with the truth mostly through radio broadcasts They believe that an informed public will do more to push NK towards democracy than anything else. Ironic that here in the land of the free we’re going in the other direction. Can’t wait to see messaging from the new and improved VofA. Going to be a mix of Orwell and Idiocracy.

  76. 76.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @debit: Hey from his Auntie Bella Q also too. That pupdate is a bright spot in a very dreary day.

  78. 78.

    Jeffro

    @Corner Stone: none of it does.

    every single stupid idea they have, if given a second thought, dissolves into “yeah…probably better not…”

    You get more and better solutions from a reefer scented freshman dorm

  79. 79.

    Josie

    @Elizabelle: The tweet by Fox is real. I follow him on Twitter. At last count 45% voted for improved health care, which, by the way, was my choice.

    ETA: At this point, I am in love with Vicente Fox.

  84. 84.

    Ian

    I do not to be more afraid of a) the whole dominance politics with our southern neighbour, b) the complete dropping of sanctions on Russia, c) the intimidation of our cowardly press corp, d) the refugee/Muslim registration thing, e) the incoming federal voter fraud laws, f) the gutting of the competent government employees, f) the environmental onslaught, or g) Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan’s legislative onslaught on the poor and elderly.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    Must admit to surprise that Palin isn’t being named ambassador to the Vatican.

    Maybe she’s holding out for Russia, so she can commute.

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    It’s raining, raining
    Oh, baby, it’s raining, raining
    Baby, come here to me
    Come here to me

  87. 87.

    Ian G.

    @debbie:

    Maybe. But the public meltdown reminds me of one of the more notorious moments in the Enron collapse: when Jeff Skilling called a portfolio manager who was shorting Enron an “asshole” on a public earnings call.

    Skilling was a sociopath like Bannon, but kept it under wraps until the pressure started getting to him. Bannon might be having a Skilling meltdown moment.

  90. 90.

    Roger Moore

    @raven:

    But only till we “figure out what is going on”!

    Given the competence of the current administration, that’s not going to happen any time in the next 4 years.

  91. 91.

    Ian G.

    @Oldgold:

    What efgoldman said. Noam freakin’ Chomsky, the high priest of the radical left, endorsed Hillary because of what Trump obviously was. Did it sway one Stein purity pony? Don’t make me laugh.

  96. 96.

    scav

    @PhoenixRising: Hitch? If they hadn’t been so magnificently sans ep up to now, I’d suspect it was just another of the usual demonstrations of power, right up there with always arriving late. “See all the foreign leaders? They not only run to his magnificence when he calls them, they answer to whatever name he calls them.”

  97. 97.

    TS

    @PhoenixRising: He is obviously never going to meet with anyone from a non english speaking nation. Have to call in Henry Kissinger to explain the spelling and the pronounciation.

  99. 99.

    Peale

    @Oldgold: no. Our progressive betters have decided that the most important difference is that democrats suck and republicans are manly and bold.

  100. 100.

    p.a.

    Can’t fathom how any of the handlers from the campaign, after being around him, could think that, once he was actually elected, they would be able to guide and control this homunculus.

  101. 101.

    Applejinx

    Found an interesting article from Germany, ever heard of Cambridge Analytica?

    It appears that someone has figured out how to exploit the ‘personalization’ and intense fragmentation of things like Facebook. We may be all in a hundred different epistemic closure bubbles, but Trump’s people worked out how to micro-target messages to those bubbles and some fucker actually went and did it.

    Sociopathic. Rich sociopathic fuckers playing God with big data. I’m given to understand (from Y Combinator’s blog) that Facebook is panicking and trying to defuse their targeting (i.e. epistemic closure mechanisms). A little too late…

  104. 104.

    Roger Moore

    @Oldgold:

    For a generation we should not have to hear from any sane person that there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican parties.

    Sure, but what about the Greens and Libertarians? We’ll still have to listen to them.

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @Applejinx: there were A number of articles out about Robert Mercer and Cambridge analytica during the summer prior to the election… A lot of that data led to the generation and direction of all the fake news

    There have been only a few articles about Roberts daughter Rebekah and her close direction of the various players in the Republican Party during the primaries . She’s the one that cracked the whip and got Ted Cruz phone banking for Donald Trump in October

  108. 108.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Exurban Mom:

    She was complaining that “all we hear about in the news is Trump…What about the rest of the world?” I think the constant negative press is getting under their skin. Bigly. We need to keep at it.

    That’s the thing, this is Trump’s own fault. It’s just breath taking the pure derp of it all.

  109. 109.

    Mike J

    Another thing John left out at the top: Hero of the left, Jeremy Corbyn, issued a three line whip[1] to approve Brexit. But hey, at least he had never worked for Blair.

    [1] Always make me think of this.

  112. 112.

    p.a.

    Nice one by Duncan B:

    Normalization
    One thing that seems to have been normalized is protest. I can’t quantify this in any way, but way back in the early aughts, protesting was something that weirdos did, a bit like playing D&D in the early 80s. Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, but somehow weird. Now it’s like “republicans in town? ok, we’re there.”
    by Atrios at 16:20

    John C if you’re still here- how did the menagerie react to the move?

  115. 115.

    Patricia Kayden

    @raven: Or until refugees can be determined to not be Muslim. Funny that Trump does business in Muslim countries but doesn’t want them here.

  124. 124.

    Bill Arnold

    @Warren Terra:

    what if they’re instead building it as a legacy project, in the mistaken belief that it will be visible from space for two thousand years, like the Great Wall Of China is widely if mistakenly believed to be?

    A friend suggested using massive earth-moving equipment to dig deep trenches, and use the dirt/rock to build a high berm in the next section, repeat. That way, it might be visible from space, as a dotted line, like borders are supposed to look like as seen on a map.
    I don’t recall, maybe he suggested hungry alligators in the trenches, and landmines and barbed wire on the berm sections, or something similar.

  125. 125.

    momus

    Notice that Pence is always on the dais when trump is speaking. If he supposed to be adult supervision he isn’t doing a very good job. If he’s the Terminator, he should get to work.

  131. 131.

    clay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    He flew to Philadelphia, where neither the Governor nor the Mayor greeted him at the airport. Reportedly, nobody did.

    Did Trump get back on the plane and leave, liked he claimed he would’ve when China didn’t put out stairs for Obama?

  134. 134.

    Sab

    @debit: I empathize with you. My fifteen year old mostly lab is snoring at my feet. We had her scheduled for euthanasia last Friday because she could hardly stand up, but by Thursday she was better. I rescheduled for a week. Still better so I cancelled. Awful to schedule killing a dog I’ve loved since we found her abandoned in a blizzard in northern Ohio a at 6 or 8 weeks old. All her life she has trusted me and I am going to have to put her down sometime this year. Yikes.

  136. 136.

    Mike in NC

    After the new British PM meets with Trump tomorrow she’ll probably be thinking that time they burned down Washington as “the good old days”.

  138. 138.

    Fermion T. Clown

    d00d, you missed the really funny part.

    8 character passwords can be broken by a brute force attack within seconds by anyone with access to Amazon Cloud Services.

    Which is to say, “anyone with a credit card”.

    Run the numbers. If you use passwords of length less than 14 characters, why bother with a password? Passwords of length less than 14 chars do nothing to hinder hackers, they’re a nuisance only to you.

    Use an online password generator and some arbitrary field within the password the generator proposes.

    I used gibson research (https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm) but there are a gazillion random password generators out there.

    Or use yubikey, which AFAICT is reasonably secure. (Guarantees in this space are inherently untrustworthy.)

    The real “tell” here is that anyone in the White House thinks that 8char passwords are secure.

    (And no punct… [eye roll])

    FWIW I use 32+ char passwords.

  139. 139.

    Calouste

    @Baud: Well, Labour campaigned against Brexit. One of the complaints after the referendum was that Corbyn was less than enthusiastic in his campaigning, being an old lefty and all that. But a three-line whip is very contrary to what Labour stood for, and has already led to yet another resignation from the shadow cabinet.

  141. 141.

    debit

    @Sab: I am glad your pup is feeling better, but totally get where you’re coming from. I don’t want to bring Walter’s time here on earth to an end, but if he’s in pain, I’m going to have to. You’re doing what you’ve always done: taking care of your dog. It’s hard (and you can’t imagine how hard and often I’ve cried) but they trust us to do what’s right.

  142. 142.

    Lyrebird

    @Jeffro: Thank you so much for posting that… and yes,

    SIGN ME UP!

    So glad to see that the current head of the ADL has already said the same, YES!!! but NOOOoo to the cruel Cheeto

  143. 143.

    Mothra

    Kellyanne denied that Tiffany is registered to vote in two states – she strongly denied public records again – that rounded things off for me.

  144. 144.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Sab: Wow. Don’t even want to think about my dogs in that situation. Glad you’ve had your doggy for such a long time.

  145. 145.

    Fermion T. Clown

    Not to beat a dead horse, but if you use passwords of length less than 14 chars, there’s a good chance you’re already p0wn3d.

  148. 148.

    patroclus

    @Baud: No, not whatever. The fact that the supposedly leftist leader of the most liberal political party in our closest ally has abdicated all opposition to nativism, bad economic policy and bigotry is a terrible precedent for worldwide democracy and a harbinger of how all opposition will do across the planet to the rise of the right-wing. Corbyn should be one of the leaders (both rhetorically and tactically) and strategic innovators and he has instead decided not only to forego all opposition but to actively demand support for demonstrably bad policy.

  151. 151.

    Another Scott

    I mentioned downstairs that I saw an Obamacare Signup ad on TV tonight, on Comedy Central, I think. I thought it was strange given recent events, but it’s yet another indication that the Trump folks trying to run things in DC really have no idea of what they’re doing, yet…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  153. 153.

    VOR

    @PhoenixRising: It’s worse than that. Britain’s PM is Theresa May. Teresa May is a porn actress. She starred in “Celebrity Shags 13”, “Dirty English Bitches Volume 3”, and “Teresa May’s Punishment Party.”

  155. 155.

    Chris

    @patroclus:

    Agreed.

    I used to find West Wingish hippie-punching from Democrats fucking unbearable, but between that guy there and Sanders here, damn if I’m not at least a little more understanding of where it comes from. These people really are dumber than a bag of hammers.

  156. 156.

    CaseyL

    @debit: I am SO glad to hear this. I’ve wanted to ask about Walter since the bad news broke, but have been afraid to. Please give him some scritches for me – and consider yourself (virtually) hugged.

  159. 159.

    Pinksnapdragon

    @Baud: Because they are SES employees. Senior Executive Service employees do not have all of the job protections that other federal employees.

  162. 162.

    Shalimar

    The 20% tariff is still hilarious hours later. Our great businessman president doesn’t know the difference between trade imports and trade deficit.

  165. 165.

    Chris

    @debbie:

    Unfortunately, I’m not surprised if Miami caved. Not only is it in a red state, but its immigrant population has a huge chunk of Cubans, who’ve always been exempt from the ship we put every other immigrant and refugee through. Makes it that much easier for them to be right wing assholes. I was, sadly, half expecting this.

    Hopefully New York, California, and Illinois fare better.

  166. 166.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ian G.:

    Bannon must be feeling the heat for him to have a meltdown like this, which makes me wonder just how bad Bannon’s fuhrer is doing at this point.

    I’m not entirely sure Bannon himself is stable mentally ATM, though it’s hard to tell with that one; he’s bright. The real puzzler for me is why he is so trusted by Trump. His willfully disheveled personal appearance must be strongly grating to Trump, who cares about such things. He’s talented politically, sure, but why would Trump trust him so much? Perhaps there is some hook; surely Trump has a visceral (and proper) dislike for anything resembling manipulation directed his way?

  167. 167.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Not “incurious.” Just fucking morons.

    Normally, I agree with what you write here, but …

    Bannon is not a moron. He’s just a monstrously evil fascist fuck, who cannot follow in Dead Andy Breitbart’s steps soon enough.

    He’s just the latest piece of shit evidence that there is no such thing as a just God.

    ETA: And speaking of Dead Andy, if there actual IS a just God, perhaps He (or She, for youse Libber-types) will bring Bannon “home” to be with Dead Andy on the fifth anniversary o0f Andy becoming Dead Andy, about 35 days from now

  168. 168.

    ? Martin

    @Chris:

    Unfortunately, I’m not surprised if Miami caved. Not only is it in a red state, but its immigrant population has a huge chunk of Cubans, who’ve always been exempt from the ship we put every other immigrant and refugee through.

    Obama rescinded that rule just before he left office. Cubans are in the same boat as everyone else now, and it’s a rule that Trump can’t put back in place – it’ll need to go back through Congress.

  170. 170.

    Mnemosyne

    So there’s this great old film noir called Alias Nick Beal, starring Ray Milland and Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell plays an honest DA who gets so frustrated trying to beat the gangsters running his city that he ends up making a deal with the devil (Milland) to do it. Of course, as with all deals with the devil, all of the things Mitchell thinks he wanted go horribly wrong and cause him far more pain than he was already in.

    Draw your own conclusions about what my point is here. ?

  172. 172.

    coin operated

    @Jeffro:

    You get more and better solutions from a reefer scented freshman dorm

    I am sooo stealing this line.

    Edited because I had the wrong line in the clipboard….

  175. 175.

    Jeffro

    @SFAW:

    perhaps He (or She, for youse Libber-types) will bring Bannon “home” to be with Dead Andy on the fifth anniversary o0f Andy becoming Dead Andy, about 35 days from now

    From your lips to Her ears…

  177. 177.

    Jeffro

    Btw folks, taking a hit for the team here, I went over to Faux News and watched Hannity’s hour long fella…er…interview of Trump about all the latest controversies. Holy cow. Can’t we just seal them both in a room together (and I mean that, SEAL it, so that the oxygen runs out in a day or less) and let them both reassure each other that Obama was the worstest ever and Hillary was about to be even worstest until they start to turn blue?

  179. 179.

    SFAW

    @Timurid:

    If he cares so much, why can’t he find a suit that fits?

    The suits from Barney’s are the BEST and CLASSIEST polyester you can find! You loser! Pathetic.

  180. 180.

    MobiusKlein

    @Fermion T. Clown: 8 char passwords have too many combos to brute force, if you have to use a rate limited endpoint. 26^8 is… 2 e11.
    If you can run the hash function locally, that is a different thing.

  181. 181.

    Jeffro

    @Bill Arnold:

    I’m not entirely sure Bannon himself is stable mentally ATM, though it’s hard to tell with that one; he’s bright. The real puzzler for me is why he is so trusted by Trump. His willfully disheveled personal appearance must be strongly grating to Trump, who cares about such things. He’s talented politically, sure, but why would Trump trust him so much? Perhaps there is some hook; surely Trump has a visceral (and proper) dislike for anything resembling manipulation directed his way?

    Frankly they are both abusers, both assured that they’re deserving of much more praise than they’ve gotten, both resent “The Establishment” (i.e., actually working for your achievements instead of resting on your laurels as a white guy) They both revere Hitler – no Godwinning here, that’s fact – and both think their rage-gasms are more important than things like the rule of law, free speech, and democracy.

  183. 183.

    KS in MA

    @Elizabelle: Just saw an ACA ad early this evening. Hmm, maybe they overlooked us out here in western Mass.–we’re not exactly a major market.

  188. 188.

    Another Scott

    White House Security Adviser Facing Gun Charge for Trying to Bring Gun onto Plane at DCA.

    WSJ (cited in the tweet):

    One of President Donald Trump’s choices for a senior position in the White House is beginning work while facing a criminal charge after he allegedly tried to bring a handgun onto an airliner last year, court records show.

    Sebastian Gorka, a national security and terrorism analyst, was stopped at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Virginia last January by an officer with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, who detected a 9mm caliber handgun using X-ray equipment as it passed on a conveyor belt. The officer alerted airport police, who confiscated the gun and cited Mr. Gorka on a state weapons charge, according to a TSA statement.

    The statement about the incident at the time that didn’t name Mr. Gorka, but it identified the offender as a resident of McLean, Va., and gave details of the incident. A U.S. official confirmed that Mr. Gorka is the man identified in the TSA statement.

    The White House didn’t respond to questions about Mr. Gorka’s gun charge, and Mr. Gorka wasn’t immediately available for comment. The gun charge itself need not disqualify Mr. Gorka from obtaining a clearance or working in the White House, unless he failed to disclose the facts to investigators, security clearance experts said.

    […]

    Mr. Gorka, who also advised the Trump transition team, is known for his hard-line views on combating terrorism and his views of Muslims living in the U.S. He has been the national security editor of Breitbart News and a frequent contributor to the website formerly run by Mr. Bannon.

    Court records show that Mr. Gorka was charged in Arlington County, Va., with carrying a weapon in an airport terminal, a misdemeanor. He is scheduled to appear at a hearing in February where a sentence or fine could be imposed.

    The court also could dismiss the charge. Mr. Gorka was ordered to forfeit his weapon, pay court costs and “be of general good behavior for six months” before his hearing.

    Court records show that Mr. Gorka entered a so-called Alford plea in August, a type of plea in which defendants acknowledge prosecutors have evidence against them but don’t specifically admit to the offense and are then sentenced.

    Nobody could have predicted…

    I ask again, how do they manage to brush their teeth without drowning?

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  189. 189.

    Bill Arnold

    @Applejinx:

    Rich sociopathic fuckers playing God with big data.

    Edit: Gin & Tonic says this is old news. OK, still interesting though.
    Ah good, thanks for the pointer. There’s more to it than that (the asymmetries in political marketing capabilities had a few additional dimensions, including some intuitive stuff I believe) but that’s a very good read.
    Still, probably wouldn’t have won without Comey and Assange and Putin.
    Though maybe his campaign, as the infamous Trump dossier alleges, paid the DNC hackers. That would align well with his claim that he knew more about hacking than most people, before he was briefed by the CIA and realized that the CIA itself thought that he wasn’t responsible. Hey, it’s just a conspiracy theory spun from available information, true or not. :-) Got lots more, since the Trump conspiracy space is under-constrained and the Trump team has declared war on objective truth.

  191. 191.

    Peale

    @sukabi: no. Good god. Please let us not forget, while we have had stable relations with Mexico for the past 100years, Mexican leaders actually are the type of corruption we’re trying to avoid taking root here.

  192. 192.

    Mnemosyne

    @Peale:

    I think that when the deeply corrupt one-party state thinks you’re taking things too far, that should be a wake-up call. Like when Ed Begley Jr. said he knew he should stop taking drugs because John Belushi was concerned that Begley was overdoing it.

  194. 194.

    debbie

    Listening to the local news just now, the mayor of my city stated we’re a sanctuary city. News to me (and welcome at that), but he’s a Democrat. I wonder if there’s a move by Democratic mayors to oppose Trump on this? (“I’m Spartacus!”)

  195. 195.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: At first I thought: Hey we need a Brutus. Who will be Brutus in the White House.

    Yon Paul Ryan has a lean and hungry look in his eye….

  197. 197.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    A couple more weeks and I will be begging for the sweet radioactive release of nuclear armageddon.

    Please don’t. I live in one of the most likely cities to be targeted in a nuclear strike – which seems far more likely to occur now than at any point since the first few years after 9/11, or maybe since the early 1980’s.

    Though I suppose the risk is not as high as it was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    Yet.

  199. 199.

    Cain

    @Sab:
    She will trust you even when it is time to go as well. Shit, I feel like crying thinking about it. I have my old cat sitting next to me.. I’ve found her becoming more and more frail. I love her. She is the only relationship I have (not friendship) I have left having lost my wife and job last year.

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    @debit:

    I’m officially requesting that you scritch Walter some for me and MRs J. We have two dogs, one older and one young. They get scritches every day.

    So please do scritch Walter for just a couple of minutes for me and MRs J…

    Thanks,
    J R

    PS, what a wonderful thing you and John Cole did rescuing old Walter. So glad for his second life being so wonderful. Thanks so much!

  201. 201.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: Yeah, but I don’t know any lines about Brutus

    “our faults, dear Brutus, lie not in the stars but in ourselves”? … I know that one from the Odd Couple though.

  204. 204.

    Kat

    My two favorites from the past week:

    Carl Bernstein: Nervous Republican officials are questioning President Trump’s ’emotional stability’
    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/carl-bernstein-nervous-republican-officials-are-questioning-president-trumps-emotional-stability/
    26 JAN 2017

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXuqOEzBWKA
    Carl Bernstein: “It is unlike anything that I have seen in 50 years of being a reporter. I am hearing from Republicans, and other reporters are as well, that there is open discussion by members of the President of the United States’ own party about his emotional maturity, stability. People are saying his psyche is driving the news cycle. We are in uncharted territory.”

    And:

    Christo’s blog: Tower of Cards (part 1)
    A dissection of Christopher Steele’s Trump dossier, including amazingly well-informed speculation about Steele’s possible sources.
    https://cgrozev.wordpress.com/

  205. 205.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cain: Graham? he gets off a decent line once in a while, either funny or sounding like he’s ready to put country or Constitution before his party, but he rarely follows through.

    The new promo for Morning Schmoe is a cloying giggle fest between Graham and Cruz, but LG does manage to pull of a sorry (not sorry) about that time I said you should be killed on the Senate floor, Ted (to bring it back to Cesar)

  206. 206.

    Ian

    @sukabi:
    He is about as right wing as the republicans. Don’t mistake him for an ally rather than as an enemy of my enemy. One could call Fox’s policy on drugs a deliberate mafia theft and genocide of political and tribal opponents. I certainly do.

  208. 208.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    We need Hamlet, in the scene where he stabs poor old Polonius in the arras.

    Well, except there’s a lot more than one rat in the Administration. And I want to know the conversion rate for ducats to dollars.

    But, for what it’s worth, George Spiggott was more in line with my ref. (Maybe you are too, and just ignoring the cheap larfs.)

  210. 210.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:
    We pulled into port in Norway, in December and we all had to man the rail because the captain expected to be greeted by Norwegian navy officers and a band, as we were the first American naval ship there since the end of WWII. As we were standing there watching it snow on us, 2 Norwegian sailors walked down the pier and tied up the ship. Then walked away. Not one officer of any kind. I imagine that drumpf was about as amused as our officers were. Fortunately the officers weren’t nearly as dumb and spiteful as drumpf is.

  215. 215.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ruckus:

    Fortunately the officers weren’t nearly as dumb and spiteful as drumpf is.

    One of the nicest things I have seen written about navy officers. Ever.

  217. 217.

    Kat

    @TS: Possibly because WaPo posted two articles, about 3 hours apart:

    First article: The State Department’s entire senior administrative team just resigned
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/01/26/the-state-departments-entire-senior-management-team-just-resigned/?utm_term=.99e55fdc96c5

    Second article: Trump administration choosing to replace several senior State Department diplomats
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-choosing-to-replace-several-senior-state-department-diplomats/2017/01/26/0c9e19e0-e3f8-11e6-a453-19ec4b3d09ba_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.0ebbdd2a09e7

  218. 218.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Well, the asshole sheriff has very little power. Madison and Milwaukee have power and money. It is why farmland and the exurbs hate them.*

    *Well, one of the reasons.

  219. 219.

    Elie

    @Cain:
    You have my hugs to you. My old guy is also dwindling but I love him dearly. He is my friend and companion. Feeling him beside me is wonderful

  220. 220.

    elm

    The GOP seems set on changing up taxes, the plan seems to be to add a 20% import tax on all goods and to muck things around to say that’s the same as a 20% corporate income tax on domestic manufacturers (who would deduct income from exports and domestic expenses).

    To me, that looks like a big tax increase on ordinary people who buy many imported goods plus a tax giveaway to companies (who would get a lower nominal tax rate + all the loopholes they want).

    Is anyone or any group out opposing or analyzing this?

  221. 221.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @elm: I have picked two areas of outrage. Voting Rights and Refugee Rights. We can’t cover everything. I am sure someone here will pick up that mission,

  223. 223.

    someone

    I think these comments caught most of what you missed: Bannon’s interview, the larger number of people surrounding Trump who are registered to vote in multiple states. But here’s one that’s currently flying mostly under the radar: Trump’s people may have outed US intelligence assets to the Russians, already, and gotten them charged with treason:

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/wow-it-gets-bigger

  224. 224.

    sukabi

    @Ian: sarcasm mostly, unnerving to have a politician of any flavor make a case for where money is best spent…

  225. 225.

    Kat

    @Applejinx:

    Geezuzz, Applejinx, this is interesting. No wonder Mercer’s hedgefund has made returns of 78% a year for 20 years in a row.

    From Trump (actually, Cambridge Analytica) Knows You

    Kosinski and his team continued, tirelessly refining their models. In 2012, Kosinski demonstrated that from a mere 68 Facebook likes on average, a lot about a user could be reliably predicted: skin color (95% accuracy), sexual orientation (88% accuracy), Democrat or Republican (85%). But there’s more: level of intellect; religious affiliation; alcohol-, cigarette-, and drug abuse could all be calculated. Even whether or not your parents were divorced could be teased out of the data.

    The strength of the model depended on how well it could predict a test subject’s answers. Kosinski kept working at it. Soon, with a mere ten “likes” as input his model could appraise a person’s character better than an average coworker. With seventy, it could “know” a subject better than a friend; with 150 likes, better than their parents. With 300 likes, Kosinski’s model could predict a subject’s answers better than their partner. With even more likes it could exceed what a person thinks they know about themselves.

    The day he published these findings, Kosinski received two phonecalls. One was a threat to sue, the other a job offer. Both were from Facebook.

  226. 226.

    Aleta

    @someone: It’s hard to imagine that any of the Russian women who spent time with Trump are safe now, even the ones who never talked about it.

  227. 227.

    No One You Know

    @Cain: I too have an old cat who I cherish. Struggling with her sickness; and as she’s on palliative care, my heart feels like melting lead these days. I cherish the moments.

  230. 230.

    Calming Influence

    With everything else going on, you may have missed the news that Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

  231. 231.

    Sloane Ranger

    @patroclus: Not at all. Corbyn belongs to that strand of the left that believes the EU is a neo-liberal corportatist un-democratic super state that uses the odd bit of social legislation as an opiate for the workers.

    The thinking of this particular group is that once free of the EU the Tories will let their anti-worker, anti anyone or thing that isn’t white and middle class freak flag fly. This will heighten the contradictions and, hey presto, REVOLUTION!

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